Anne Lagac Dowson takes on Justin Trudeau for NDP in Papineau

Former CBC/Radio-Canada journalist Anne Lagac Dowsonannounced on Sunday that she isrunning for the NDP in the Papineau riding of Montrealalso known asLiberal leader and ridingincumbent Justin Trudeau's riding.

"I think that this riding iseminentlywinnable. It has been reconfigured since the last election, there are a lot of disaffected Bloc voters who are looking for a progressive place to put their vote, Ithink there are disenchanted Liberals also," Lagac Dowson said on Sunday."People want something different."

It isn't the first time Lagac Dowson has run in an election. Last year, she was defeated in the race for the head of the English Montreal School Board and in 2008 she ran for the NDPin the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding, losing to Liberal Marc Garneau.

Making the leap

She said running for the NDP again isn't a huge leap, because shepersonally holds a lot of the same values the NDP advocates for.

'Ithink [Mulcair] isthe guy with the best chance of reversing the damage that's been done by the Harper Conservatives.'- Anne Lagac Dowson, NDP candidate

"But going from being a journalist to being a politician is a big leap and it's a very different sort of parameters. For me, it made sense to do this now because Ithink this is ahistoric election. Ithink there's been a change in the mood across Quebec and across Canada. Ithink people have grown very tired of the Harper Conservative approach to pretty much everything, and I think it's time for a change," Lagac Dowson said.

She said the feasibility of an NDP government increasedafter the party won the provincial leadership in Alberta. She also pointed to recent Liberal decisions that she said weren't well-received by many Canadians.

"Ithink the record for the Liberalsrecently hasn't been very illustrious. The Liberals supported the Conservatives on the so-called anti-terror bill, BillC-51. They voted against moving ahead on proportional representation. They're not substantially different enough from the Conservatives to provide an alternative, and Ithink the NDPis," Lagac Dowson said.

Candidates in the Papineau riding:

Maxime Claveau (BlocQubcois).
Anne Lagac Dowson (NDP).
Danny Polifroni (Green Party).
Justin Trudeau(Liberals).
Yvon Vadnais (Conservatives).

"I think the NDPunder the leadership of ThomasMulcairespecially is a very credibleoption because Mulcairwas the [provincial]environment minister in Quebec, he knows the environment file every which way," she said. "Ithink he's the guy with the best chance of reversing the damage that's been done by the Harper Conservatives."

She said she plans on spending each of the next 60 days of the election campaign in the Papineau riding, knocking on doors and speaking to constituents.